Christian Alexander Hildebrand
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Prof. Dr.
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Hildebrand
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Christian Alexander
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christian.hildebrand@unisg.ch
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071 224 7711
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  • Publication
    Social Product-Customization Systems: Peer Input, Conformity, and Consumers’ Evaluation of Customized Products
    (Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2018-03-30)
    Schlager, Tobias
    ;
    Hildebrand, Christian
    ;
    Häubl, Gerald
    ;
    Franke, Nikolaus
    ;
    Herrmann, Andreas
    Many product-customization systems enable consumers to obtain input from their peers during the customization process. The design characteristics of these customization systems vary significantly, and some systems provide consumers with the opportunity to receive peer input only privately (i.e., unobservable to fellow consumers) while others allow consumers to receive peer input publicly (i.e., observable to other consumers). Building on prior research on thinking styles and social impact theory, the current work examines the interplay between user, social network, and system design characteristics in social product-customization systems as drivers of whether consumers conform to input received from others on their customized products and of their evaluation of these products. Evidence from one field study and four experiments shows that consumers with more holistic (vs. analytic) thinking styles make more conforming product modifications when receiving public rather than private peer input, and this greater conformity to peer input boosts (vs. diminishes) consumers’ evaluation of customized products when they feel close (vs. distant) to input providers. These findings offer novel insights into how the design of social product-customization systems affects consumers’ evaluation of customized products.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Journal of Management Information Systems : JMIS
    Volume: 35
    Issue: 1
    DOI: 10.1080/07421222.2018.1440763
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/100635
    Scopus© Citations 26
  • Publication
    Product Customization via Starting Solutions
    (American Marketing Association, 2014-12-01)
    Hildebrand, Christian
    ;
    Häubl, Gerald
    ;
    Herrmann, Andreas
    Customizing a product by choosing each of its attributes individually tends to be onerous for consumers, and the benefits of product customization may thus be offset by an increase in choice complexity. As a remedy for this dilemma, the current research introduces the customization via starting solutions (CvSS) architecture, which substantially reduces the complexity of product customization while preserving all of its advantages. Under CvSS, consumers first select one starting solution from a set of prespecified products, which they then refine to create their final customized product. Evidence from nine studies (three of which were conducted in field settings) across a wide range of product domains (shirts, cars, vacation packages, jewelry, and financial products) shows that the CvSS architecture results in substantial benefits relative to the standard attribute-by-attribute product customization format for both consumers (increased satisfaction with their product choices, reduced choice complexity, and enhanced mental simulation of product use) and firms (purchases of more feature-rich, and thus higher-priced, products).
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Journal of Marketing Research
    Volume: 51
    Issue: 6
    DOI: 10.1509/jmr.13.0437
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/86067
    Scopus© Citations 68